*This open letter was first published at prowomanprolife.org<\/a> and is re-published here with the author’s permission.<\/em><\/p>\n Dear\u00a0Dr. Marc Gabel<\/a>,<\/p>\n I just read this\u00a0article which was published in the Catholic\u00a0Register.<\/a>\u00a0You were quoted in the piece. Here is an excerpt:<\/p>\n Catholic doctors who won\u2019t perform abortions or provide abortion referrals should leave family medicine, says an official of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.<\/p>\n \u201cIt may well be that you would have to think about whether you can practice family medicine as it is defined in Canada and in most of the Western countries,\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0said Dr. Marc Gabel, chair of the college\u2019s policy working group reviewing \u201cProfessional Obligations and Human Rights.\u201d<\/p>\n The Ontario doctor\u2019s organization released a draft policy Dec. 11 that would require all doctors to provide referrals for abortions, morning-after pills and contraception. The revised policy is in response to evolving obligations under the Ontario Human Rights Code, Gabel said.<\/p>\n There have been no Ontario Human Rights Tribunal decisions against doctors for failing to refer for abortion or contraception.<\/p>\n Gabel said there\u2019s plenty of room for conscientious Catholics in various medical specialties, but a moral objection to abortion and contraception will put family doctors on the wrong side of human rights legislation and current professional practice.<\/p>\n \u201cMedicine is an amazingly wide profession with many, many areas to practice medicine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Yes, medicine is \u201can amazingly wide profession.\u201d Thankfully, it is also a profession which attracts an \u201camazingly wide\u201d array of Canadians. Of those Canadian physicians are some who share my pro-life perspective. They may refuse to refer for abortion due to their conscience, but they may also refuse to refer due to their religious beliefs (or both \u2013 we\u2019re working out what this means under the\u00a0Charter<\/em>). They may be Christian, Muslim, Jewish or atheist physicians but they have an issue with abortion or contraceptives. For them, to refer for this procedure or these drugs is to be complicit in the actions and their consequences.<\/p>\n I am an Ontario resident. I\u2019m a cancer survivor. I\u2019m a mother.\u00a0 I have spent far more than my fair share of time in Ontario hospitals and clinics being treated by wonderful Ontario doctors.<\/p>\n Over the last few years, I\u2019ve gone out of my way to work with pro-life physicians who share my perspective. I reject the notion that killing and dismembering unborn children is medicine, and I wanted to work with physicians who share my values regarding human life and human dignity.\u00a0 Due to the \u201camazingly wide\u201d practice of medicine in Ontario, I was able to find a few, and become their patient. I am so thankful for their care.<\/p>\n But due to your working group\u2019s proposed new policy, I might lose my family physicians. They will choose to practice medicine in a province that respects both their skills and their rights, rather than sacrifice their conscience or their sincerely held religious beliefs.<\/p>\n